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• Lib Dems announce plans for free school meals for all primary school children
• NHS Confederation survey: Conservatives have run our health service into the ground
• Premier League season tickets spiral as Lib Dems call for free-to-air football
• Towns funding: Conservatives aren’t fooling anyone
• Rennie responds to M9 crash after “unforgiveable” wait for findings
• Cole-Hamilton commits to keeping triple lock on pensions

Lib Dems announce plans for free school meals for all primary school children

• The Liberal Democrats have announced their ambition to extend free school meals to all primary school children, beginning with all children in poverty.

• The party will fund their manifesto policy by introducing a share buyback tax, inspired by a similar tax introduced by Joe Biden in the US.

• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey slams Conservative government for “letting children go hungry in the worst cost of living crisis in a generation”.

The Liberal Democrats have launched their ambition to extend free school meals to all primary school children, funded by a new share buyback tax.

The party’s plan includes an immediate extension of free school meals to all 900,000 children living in poverty who currently miss out. The second phase would see all primary school children receiving free school meals as the public finances stabilise.

Analysis by PWC found that every £1 spent on free school meals for the poorest children generates £1.38 in health and earnings benefits, including improvements to children’s health, education and future working life opportunities.

The new policy will make the Liberal Democrats the most ambitious party on free school meals. The government currently only provides meals for all children in reception, year 1 and year 2. In year 3 and above, the government has set stringent conditions on family income for children receiving free school meals.

The manifesto pledge would be funded by a 4% levy on the share buybacks of FTSE 100 listed corporations, similar to the excise tax on buybacks implemented by President Biden in the US, which could raise around £1.4bn a year.